First-Term Legislator a Tempting Target for Republicans

Assembly Republicans intent on retaking control of the lower house in elections next year already have a prime target in their sights: freshman Sally Havice, Democrat from Cerritos.

Hoping to recapture her southeast Los Angeles County district after losing it last year, GOP campaign strategists and Assembly Republicans have painted Havice as confused, bumbling and nonproductive. So harsh is the criticism that some Republicans say it has gone too far.

Severe though the GOP barrage has been, the 59-year-old grandmother and former community college teacher has another, arguably bigger problem: She is taking similar flak from fellow Democrats.

Some defend her, but at least three Assembly Democrats are openly critical of Havice’s performance to date, including one in a leadership position.

“She’s a bright woman with a good heart,” said Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), “but she seems bewildered by the process.”

And if that piling on isn’t enough, Havice (pronounced HAV-iss) herself seems willfully to invite criticism from many of her colleagues.

What is said about her in Sacramento, she said in an interview, “doesn’t bother me. . . . I’m here to represent my district. Where I need to do a good job is in my district, for my district. Not here.”

As if to underscore the point, the phrase “my district” recurred 17 times in less than an hour during an interview with a reporter.

She invited two Girl Scouts “from my district” to sit in on the interview, after which she caught a plane to the district for what an aide described as fulfilling a long-standing commitment: attending swearing-in ceremonies of the Cerritos Chamber of Commerce.

In doing so, although she served notice in advance, Havice missed debate on three important bills before the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, on which she serves.

Twice in recent months Havice has had run-ins with Assembly Democrats who were, as it happened, fellow female members of the Latino caucus. Both incidents were the kind of internal disagreements that politicians ordinarily try to keep quiet.

Havice went public.

Objecting to her treatment before a May 20 meeting of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, she wrote letters of complaint the next day to the committee chairwoman, Martha Escutia (D-Bell), and committee member Diane Martinez (D-Monterey Park). She sent copies to several Assembly members, including Democratic and Republican leaders.

Escutia and Martinez, she said when interviewed recently, “pulled their shenanigans in public, so I had a need” to do the same.

Minor though the issue may seem, Havice wrote accusing Escutia of bypassing her as she attempted to present a bill at a Judiciary Committee hearing. Witnesses had to leave to catch planes before they could testify, she said.

Escutia said later that Havice failed to understand the committee’s order of business. She is, Escutia said, “a freshman who unfortunately does not understand the rules of the game.”

As for Martinez, Havice wrote that “your irresponsible and inappropriate statements” wrongly accused Havice, among other things, of failing to work on legislation in good faith with opponents. Havice concluded her letter saying that “no apology is needed nor will it be accepted.”

More than a month later, she and Martinez still have not spoken, both said.

Martinez said Havice needs to learn how to stand on her own feet and not rely on coaching from other Democrats. And until Havice personally explains why she wrote the letter, “She will not have me as a friend,” Martinez said.

But oddly, the often fiery Martinez, summing up her observations of her colleague, blamed the Republicans for most of the negative impressions that Havice engenders.

“They’re trying to say that this woman, who has a master’s degree and is a teacher, is stupid,” said Martinez, adding that Havice is “far more competent to be in the Legislature” than some Republicans.

For all their plotting against her, Martinez said, Republicans are wasting their time trying to unseat Havice in 1998. People in her largely blue-collar district with its conservative streak “love her.” She’s “home folk” like they are, she said.

Havice appears to be counting on that--assuming that her careful cultivation of the people back home will outweigh whatever problems she may encounter in Sacramento.

So far, although there are no reliable polls of her district, interviews with residents provide some support for Havice’s hopes.

“She does what people want,” said Adrian Ruiz, a Republican who is a service station owner and gun dealer in Cerritos.

Ruiz said he would probably oppose Havice on such issues as gun control and abortion, but likes her for “doing her job. She’s at all the functions.” If she has critics, that’s probably because “they’re jealous of her,” he said.

Similarly, the mayors of Artesia and Lakewood, who both opposed Havice initially, now call themselves supporters of hers. So does Edward Sussman, the superintendent of the Downey Unified School District.

“I’m very impressed with her performance,” Sussman said. Havice and her staff are “very responsive when we call for assistance or information.”

But Dixie Primosch, who served with Havice on the area’s ABC School District board for almost eight years, called her “fiscally irresponsible” and “not very bright.”

When the crunch came on where to spend scarce school funds, Primosch said, “Havice went into denial” and proposed huge teacher bonuses that the district could ill afford.

In Sacramento, Havice does have some supporters, including the influential head of the Assembly Rules Committee, Don Perata (D-Alameda).

She “needs a lot less care and feeding than people presume,” Perata said. She won a tough election fight in 1996 “and she can take care of herself here--just as she did to get here.”

Perhaps Havice’s severest critic among fellow Democrats is Kuehl, who is also an influential leader.

Attempts by other Assembly Democrats to protect Havice are often painfully evident when she gets up to speak, Kuehl said. From her vantage point on the Assembly chamber dais, “I can see members leave their seats and coach her during her presentation of a bill,” Kuehl said.

“You have to spend a long time with her for her to understand” legislative complexities, she said.

Havice voted against a Kuehl bill that would have prohibited discrimination in schools on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill is dead for this year.

But Kuehl says Havice’s opposition to that and other of the speaker pro tem’s legislation only partially explains Kuehl’s “disappointment.”

Meanwhile, the Republican drumbeat against Havice has exceeded normal political bounds, according to at least two GOP Assembly members.

Conservative Assemblyman Bruce Thompson (R-Fallbrook) expressed his disapproval by sending Havice a bouquet of roses--”yellow, the color of friendship,” Havice said.

Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico) said he spoke up for Havice at a private GOP Assembly meeting, declaring that “we are degrading ourselves” by the “snickering and mockery” that Republican members aim at Havice during floor debate.

“I told them it was outrageous,” Richter said. “We were acting like schoolboys” taunting an unpopular classmate.

Besides criticism from Assembly members, other GOP attacks against Havice are being handled by an expert in the craft, John Nelson, Assembly Republican Leader Curt Pringle’s press secretary and a GOP specialist in “opposition research” aimed at discrediting Democratic election rivals.

Nelson has “fax-blasted” news releases to reporters accusing Havice of having voted against her own bills. He has also circulated videotapes that he says show her appearing foolish in televised sessions of legislative committees and on the Assembly floor. The videos fall short of demonstrating serious shortcomings, but do show a rookie legislator lacking a forceful speaking style.

For her part, however, Havice insists she is not concerned. “I’ll be 60 years old this year. I’ve been through life. This is nothing new,” she said.